Saturday, November 22, 2008

45 Years Gone

JFK 45 Years Gone

The American public's confidence in their government is now at an all time low, a decline that began in November 1963 with the assassination of President Kennedy, an event that sparked the steady decline that was buttressed by Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and now the economy.

Just as the economic crisis won’t be rectified until its root causes are recognized, addressed and resolved, the decline in public confidence in government won’t ever be fully abated until key issues about the assassination are resolved to a legal and moral certainty.

With a new Congress and an administration pledged to open government and full transparency we should expect the expedited release of all the government’s JFK assassination records and a national security review of what really happened at Dealey Plaza that day.

Congress had previously sealed their assassination records for fifty years because that was the length of time that they estimated the people mentioned in the records would be dead. Now that these records are released early, there is still a window of opportunity to properly interview these witnesses for the record.

Although you may say that it is too late to determine the total truth or seek justice through the legal system, in the eyes of the law the murder of President Kennedy is still an unresolved homicide, and there is a statistical probability that some of the witnesses are still alive. We know they are.

At the very least the living witnesses should be interviewed under oath and on the record, either as part of a Congressional hearing or a grand jury investigation, and at least an attempt should be made to try to answer as many of the outstanding questions as possible.

The governemnt records related to the assassination that remain classified are still sealed for reasons of national security. When President Kennedy was killed, it was a matter of national security to keep details of the assassination secret from the public, but now, forty-five years later, it is a matter of national security that they be relased and released in full.

In the next session of Congress we can expect hearings around mid-March, during Sunshine Week, on the proposed MLK Act, to release the MLK records of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the JFK Act, which has yet to be properly reviewed, as well as the Freedom of Information Act and other open government issues.

Congress also recently passed, and the president signed the Emmet Till Bill, which provides funding for and establishes a permanent Task Force designated to investigate and prosecute unresolved cold case civil rights murders of the fifties, sixties and seventies, which would also include some of the political assassinations of that era.

Besides those civil rights murders that will come under the jursidiction of the Emmet Till Task Force, there are dozens of unresolved but related murders that occurred in different jurisdictions but are connected, and the resolution of any one could lead to the solving of others, including John Rosselli, Sam Giancana, James Hoffa, et al.

The life of the new president and our form of government is threatened because the assassination of President Kennedy and other similar murders remain unresolved, and only by resolving them can our future be secured.

Besides the hope brought by a new administration and expected Congressional efforts, there is a new DA in Dallas who has already released JFK assassination records that his predecessors had collected and failed to provide to the JFK Assassinations Records Review Board. While his office has also released dozens of prisoners whose convictions were overturned on DNA evidence, the actual perpetrators of those crimes still go free, just as those who killed JFK were never really even pursued.

In the course of re-investigating the still unsolved cold case homicides, the Dallas DA would have to re-examine the case of Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit, a murder that can be solved today, and resolution of that case could provide new evidence in the assassination of the President, since they are said to be related.

The assassination of President Kennedy may have occured 45 years ago, but it is more significant today than at any time since it happened, a new relevance based on the historic circumstances of the day and the ideals of the new President, whose ability to serve and survive may rest on the secrets of Dealey Plaza.

The President is not secure today, our national security is still compromised now, and our democracy will remain threatened until all the government records on the assassination of President Kennedy are released and the outstanding questions are resolved. Something that can and must happen.